PR Writing Tips | Speech Writing & Choosing Your Spokesperson
As a PR professional your goal is to help your client or company to eloquently convey the correct information to the public. Public relations requires excellent communication skills, which you cannot completely control in regards to the company executives, but you can help to choose the best spokesperson to share information. You can also help them by creating an excellent template and script to follow.
As the public relations specialist, manager, or team, it is up to you to coordinate press conferences, interviews, and appearances. Ways you can help to make them easier and less stressful is to create a speech or script for your spokesperson. The spokesperson can be the CEO, COO, someone from IT, or even someone from the PR team. The important thing to remember is to ensure that the spokesperson knows the topic they are talking about and that they have enough people skills to make them personable, responsive, and calm.
When choosing a spokesperson, consider the following:
From Strategic Public Relations, here are some questions to ask:
- Are they great communicators?
- Are they passionate and enthusiastic about your organization’s work?
- Are they likable?
- Do they have good listening skills?
- Are they insightful enough to understand what’s beyond the question?
- Are they patient and willing to educate?
- Do they value the media and the role it plays?
- Are they comfortable and prepared?
(pg. 100-101)
Your spokesperson should understand the company message and be able to convey that to stay on that message. They should believe in what they are talking about; it is easier to share that information if they are fully behind the message and idea they share. Believing in something can also help to ensure that they are passionate about it. Moreover, finding someone who can communicate, has interpersonal skills, respects the media and their time (and understands why the media is important), and feels prepared.
A great way to ensure they are prepared is to help them become prepared. That includes helping them to feel comfortable talking openly and being honest. Being open and honest makes it easier to feel and come across as being comfortable; being the opposite is often times visible to reporters and the public. Practice their speeches with them, give them possible interview questions, and let the reporter know some topics that you would like to be covered in the interview. You can even ask for the reporter or journalist to offer questions they plan to ask.
Some key points to remember when composing a speech:
- Be truthful. Honesty is vital. While you may not be giving the speech personally, you are responsible for the reputation of the client or company. You
- Do your homework. Talk with the spokesperson you have in mind and practice the interview so that they can be prepared. This can help you to write the speech based on their own responses and can also help them to feel more connected to the speech; reading something someone else wrote for you may be a little difficult.
- Do some research. Learn about the event they will be speaking at, the topics they will cover, and the reason they are there. This can help you direct the speech in the right direction.
- Speeches are tools. They can be used to inform, advocate, or perpetuate an idea, company, product, or service. You can use the speech as a way to correct information, to announce a new venture, or to help advocate a great cause. These can help generate PR and WOM (word of mouth).
- Choose an interesting topic. Get input from the speaker. Choose a topic that is interesting to them so that they can be better involved in the speech, making it a better speech to hear for the audience.
- Make it personal. The speaker should be speaking in first person as if telling a story about themselves, their involvement in the company, and why they are giving the speech. This makes it easier for the audience to relate to the speaker and makes it, well, more personable.
Lastly, remember to make the speech conversational. In most cases the speech should be like a conversation between colleagues or peers. Keep it light and short; less is more when it comes to a speech. Attention spans can be rather short, and hearing a short, quality speech can be much more memorable than a lengthy, fluffed speech. Remember too that as the PR professional, giving a speech or 2 (or 20) in your career is normal. It is your responsibility to address the public at times, and even partake in an interview.
What are some tips you have for writing and giving speeches?
Related Business Training.com Resources
Tags: Choosing a Spokesperson, PR Writing Tips, public relations writing, Speech Writing
